The present invention relates to a door opener and, more particularly, to a power door opener that allows a user to force open a door with enhanced safety and reduced noise.
In the law enforcement and fire services, first responders arriving at the destination are often faced with locked doors barring ready access to a building or room within a building. In the case of firefighters, the increasing use of security locks and metal doors require firefighters to carry pry bars, axes, sledge hammers and even hydraulic tools to force doors open. As is known, the time required to force a door open for the firefighter to gain access to a potentially dangerous fire is critical as the danger of injury to a firefighter increases as the fire is allowed to continue unabated such that the faster the firefighter can attack the fire, the better the outcome with greater safety to the firefighter.
In addition, with many fires in a closed room or confined area, the fire can be starving for oxygen and the opening of the door allows air into the room and the fire tends to blow back in the direction of the open door toward the source of the oxygen, thereby putting any personnel positioned in the doorway at great risk. It is therefore a danger to a fireman to be positioned within the doorway of a door as it is being opened to access a fire within the closed room.
In the case of law enforcement, in addition to the tools use by the fire department, law enforcement personnel sometimes use battering rams. When the officers use a battering ram, they can be exposed to danger since the user of the battering ram normally must stand in front of the door. This danger is increased if the door is not opened on the first try such that any occupants are alerted to the fact of the law enforcement officers attempting to gain entry into the room and can take measures, possible deadly, to repel any entry into the room by the law enforcement personnel.
Another method commonly used to force open a door is by using a manually pumped hydraulic ram. With the hydraulic ram, the ram is inserted in the space between the door and the door jamb in the vicinity of the lock and the hydraulic ram forces the door jamb apart such that the jamb is displaced away from the door sufficiently to disengage the lock and allow the door to be opened. With this method, the user is required to hand pump the tool until the door is spread enough to force it open. Again, during the process, the user is exposed to danger from the occupiers inside the premises.
Accordingly, the use of the hydraulic ram is useful for flush doors where the tool can be inserted into the space between the door and the door jamb but is extremely difficult to use if the door is flush to the inside leaving a 4-6 inch recess between the outside door sill and the door.
In addition the military also has a need to open a locked door in gaining access to a building or room and, using a battering ram or hydraulic tool, there is the addition danger that if the ram does not work to open the door on the first try, the occupants inside the room are warned and can react by firing weapons through the door in an attempt to thwart the entry by the military personnel, thereby creating a dangerous situation to those attempting to gain entry.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a door opener that could be used to force the opening of a door where the use of the door opener could be relatively quiet so as to avoid alerting the occupants of the room and which also can allow the personnel attempting to open the door to be physically located aside the door and not directly in front of the door at the time the entry is attempted.